Health Program | News, Views and Reviews on Health Issues

Depressive illness is such a physically and socially debilitating condition. It restricts you from doing the normal day-to-day activities and jeopardizes your work, friendships and how you deal with others.

The National Institute of Mental Health reports that more than 11.6 million Americans are suffering from depression. More specifically, clinical depression. According to the latest research findings, early symptoms of depression should be dealt with immediately with appropriate treatment.

Otherwise, major depression sets in and may result to other cardiovascular complications such as heart disease.

Let us first review the various symptoms manifested by people and their relative causes to fully delineate the path of its origin and occurrence from a more clinical viewpoint.

Again, depression is a psychoneurotic illness where patients manifest some or all of the following symptoms: sadness, sudden decrease or increase in appetite, concentration difficulty, inactivity, and hyperactivity (manic depression), feeling of rejection and setting in the idea of committing suicide.

To understand better how depression works in the human body and its possible adverse effects, it is better to know some of the essential scientific and physiological basis of this rather unusual condition.

Physiology of Depression and its Causes

Clinical depression is basically a neurological condition. It is caused by an imbalance of hormones present in the body, which is in that case, produced by the brain itself.

Hormones are small biologically active molecules that direct the function of other organs. They are responsible for the direct physiological activity and characteristic behavior of a person through various social and environmental circumstances.

Imbalance in the hormone levels in blood serum can cause a massive effect on your state of emotional health. This sudden increase or decrease of these chemical messengers may cause you to become overly excited over any situation (manic depression) or may feel very low to the point of becoming apathetic, and choose not to respond to their everyday needs.
Some evidence points to a genetic cause of depressive illness, although not fully confirmed.

Most individuals who manifest genetic predisposition do not outwardly exhibit such illness. It is found that all people can develop this condition if triggered by appropriate environmental factors.

The of physical effects of depressive illness depends on the severity of the depression you are experiencing. For people with mild depression (dysthymia), it may last for months or even years and individuals who do not get proper and individualized medical treatment may progress into a severe depression.
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By: Lauralee Lemons
Posted:

Date Taken: 2008-03-10 13:43:52
Owner: Coventry City Council

physical health

The Atkins Diet is a high-protein, low-carbohydrate weight loss diet developed by Robert Atkins, M.D., during the 1960s. The Atkins Diet severely restricts the consumption of carbohydrate-rich foods and encourages the consumption of protein and fat.

Stages of Atkins Diet Plan

The Atkins Diet consists of four stages:

Stage 1: Induction

Stage 2: Ongoing weight loss

Stage 3: Pre-maintenance

Stage 4: Maintenance

Induction is the first stage of the plan. It lasts 14 days or more. This rapid weight loss is due to limiting your carbohydrates to 20 grams a day. The only carbohydrates you can have are low-carbohydrate vegetables like lettuce, broccoli and tomatoes. The purpose of induction is to induce a change in your body chemistry that leads to lipolysis (burning fat for energy) and a secondary process known as ketosis.

Ongoing weight loss phase where you add carbohydrate, in the form of nutrient-dense and fibre-rich foods, by increasing to 25 grams daily the first week, 30 grams daily the next week and so on until your weight loss stops.

During the Premaintenance and Maintenance phases, dieters determine the level of carbohydrate consumption that allows them to maintain their weight. To prevent weight regain, dieters are told to maintain this level of carbohydrate consumption, perhaps for the rest of their lives.

Some Cons of Atkins Diet:

• Once you are committed to atkins diet plan, you have to be committed to follow it for life. After you have lost weight, you can’t go back to eating.
• People who suffer from gout, kidney conditions should not go on Atkins. You should check with your doctor before you go into any diet plan.
• Some participants in Atkins Diet report losing clumps of hair. They complained having no energy to exercise. Some reported going into a slump of depression.
• High amounts of dietary protein increase calcium loss, which can contribute to osteoporosis.
• Some research has indicated that this type of diet may endanger the kidneys, result in dehydration, or lead to other health problems.

South Beach Diet has a major advantage over Atkins — it promotes healthy foods — healthy unsaturated fats that have the effect of lowering bad cholesterol, complex, low GI carbs, that help insulin level regulation.

Another major difference between the two diets is that the South Beach Diet recommends moderation (implying lower caloric intake) while Atkins does not even suggest it.

The only advantage that Atkins has over South Beach would be that in Atkins the weight loss is bigger and faster. But this “advantage” can be dangerous for health, as rapid and massive weight loss cannot be healthy when occurring in a very short time and with the cost of depriving the body of valuable vital nutrients — vitamins, minerals etc.

Atkins has been very successful for many people and has resulted in not only significant weight loss – but also health improvement. Many people do find the diet demanding at first and need to make significant behavior modification to get the best out of Atkins.

By: New Diet
Posted:

Every time I eat one of these I end up weighing less the next day. Probably because every time I eat one of these I work about twice as hard on the elliptical beforehand.

Date Taken: 2009-06-16 21:09:16
Owner: somegeekintn

diet plan